Wireless Connectivity in a Radar Detector

Abstract

A radar detector accessory permits wireless connectivity to a smartphone to enhance or improve upon the existing radar detector, by providing enhanced display of the detector status and control of the detector, including storage of false alerts and locations of interest, storage and alerting to known hazards such as speed cameras and redlight cameras. Further, using the smartphone data connection, events of interest are reported to a central server, such as radar / laser detections, police activity sightings and mobile camera sightings, and remotely reported events of these types are delivered to the smartphone for delivery as alerts to the local driver.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser. No. 12 / 578,377, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser. No. 12 / 389,978 filed Feb. 20, 2009, and claims the benefit of Ser. No. 12 / 389,978 filed on Feb. 20, 2009. This application is also related to U.S. Ser. No. 11 / 620,443 filed Jan. 5, 2007, U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 396,881, filed Mar. 25, 2004, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,905, each of which claim benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 139,097, filed Jun. 14, 1999, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 145,394, filed Jul. 23, 1999. All of these applications are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to radar detectors.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Radar detectors warn drivers of the use of police radar, and the potential for traffic law citations if the driver exceeds the speed limit. The FCC has allocated several re...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]In one aspect, the invention features a radar detector accessory comprising a housing that incorporates a cigarette lighter plug for obtaining 12 volt power from a cigarette lighter connector, a connector for pro

Problems solved by technology

The growing number of such signals is rapidly undermining the credibility of radar detector performance.

Radar detectors cannot tell the difference between emissions from many of these devices and true police radar systems.

As a result, radar detectors are increasingly generating false alarms, effectively “crying wolf”, reducing the significance of warnings from radar detectors.

However certain locations near airports have been demonstrated to cause such problems for various laser detector products.

For example, a common problem with navigation devices with GPS capability is that data on the device may not updated.

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